Six Years in ‘Memphis’: Rock ’n’ Roll ’n’ Changes

“I got a message that basically said that they wanted me, but they were also kind of looking at a star name,” Mr. Kimball said. “And I was devastated. It was the first time in my life that I was absolutely so upset that I almost threw up.”

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Living in Los Angeles at the time, Mr. Kimball poured himself into a clothing business that he had started with his brother. But he could not get “Memphis” out of his mind, he said, having fallen in love with the style of early rock radio music and the lyrics by David Bryan (a founding member of Bon Jovi) and Joe DiPietro (who also wrote the book). He kept pressing to return to the role, and ultimately did, finally winning the part for good.

Ms. Frost said that Mr. Kimball and Ms. Glover were always the top contenders to reprise their roles, but she acknowledged that with the long lead time to Broadway, the idea of casting stars did come up.

“As we were looking at moving to New York, there were plenty of people telling us we were crazy to do this on Broadway without stars,” she said. “But we felt really strongly that the show was the star, and this was an opportunity to make stars, like musicals such as ‘Rent’ and ‘Wicked’ did for some of their leading actors.”

The 35-year-old Ms. Glover, meanwhile, wrestled with the balance between Felicia’s emotional vulnerability and pure drive, Mr. Ashley, the director, said. And she and Mr. Kimball also pressed the creative team to find a realistic ending that would be true to the characters. Some suggestions involved a huge leap forward in time, a hokey surprise party or a particularly sad decline for Huey.

“There were so many changes that new pages to the script became color coded, like change No. 10 was lilac,” said Ms. Glover, whose first Broadway production was “The Color Purple.”

“But I think for Chad, and I know for me, we kept faith since 2003 with our deep affection for these characters,” Ms. Glover said. “I grew up in Tennessee, just like Felicia, and she and I both had these dreams and so much inside us that wanted to get out. It was my own dream to play a character like this on Broadway. It was worth the wait.”